Ogden Evening Standard | 1911-07-22 | Page 3 | Now Go to Mecca by Train

uu NOW GO TO MECCA BY TRAIN. Pilgrims to the Tomb of Mahomet Saved the Hitherto Necessary Trip Across Desert. The decision of the Turkish govern- ; ment to extond the famous Hedjaz ' railroad by carrying tho metals of ' this lino across the desert from Me- ' dinu to Mecca calls attention to what Is undoubtedly one of the most dnr- ing railroad enterprises of the age. ' This railroad Is bnlque In Its claim j oi neing tne only railroad mint ror tho purpose of carrying pilgrims. Indeed known as "The Railroad of the Pilgrims," Pil-grims," it Is being used for the transportation trans-portation of Mohammedan, pilgrims to Medina, tho burial placo of their prophet. Starting from Damascus It runs almost duo south through wild and sotrllo country for more than S20 miles to Medina. A short distance fiom tho terminus is Daraa, now quite an imposing and Important station, where tho line joins that coming up from Hnlfla round tho southern shores of tbo Seat of Galileo. From Daraa tho lino gradually ascends as-cends the uudulatlng slopes of a plateau as far as Zorka, where It drops Into a deep valley, and climbs out again by a winding belt. As tho lino proceeds southwards, signs of civilization becomo fewer and fewer, and the sonso of desolation moro pronounced. Pursuing a course parallel paral-lel to the River Jordan, and almost identical with the old caravan route, the railroad traverses a district as full of intorost for the Christian as for the Mohammedan. Decayed ruins of past civilisation and silent monuments monu-ments of long-departed prosperity are vlsiblo on all sides. So the journey continues until EI Ua Is reached, 609 miles from Darua1-cus Darua1-cus and 210 from Medina. Beyond El Ula none but Mohammedans may go, oven the engiueor-ln-chlef. who is a 'German, had to relegate to a Moham- me dan aselstant the carrying of the metals into Medina. The railroad Is now to be extended to Mecca, the birthplace of Mohammed, but to accomplish ac-complish this, 285 miles of track has yet to be laid across the desert. This Is now being rapidly done and construction con-struction trains carrying the necessary neces-sary material have proceeded south from Damascus with Turkish soldiers who will build the line under 'he direction di-rection of a Mohammedan onglneor It Is lntercstlnc: here to noto thax when the Bagdad railroad has progressed pro-gressed another 200 miles and the Bosphonis Is spanned by bridge, the sacred city of Mecca will be In direct railroad communication with Constantinople